"Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on"
About this Quote
Tagore turns procrastination into a haunting. “Slurred over” is a razor-sharp choice: it’s not just avoiding a problem, it’s smoothing it down with a lazy tongue, pretending the rough edge isn’t there. The punishment isn’t public scandal or divine wrath; it’s insomnia. The “ghost” arrives not as melodrama but as psychology: the unresolved returning in the quiet hours, when distraction runs out and the self has to live with what it dodged.
That image lands because Tagore treats difficulty as moral and spiritual material, not mere inconvenience. In a poet steeped in the rhythms of Bengali devotional thought and the pressures of colonial modernity, repose isn’t just sleep; it’s inner steadiness. A life that looks functional from the outside can still be internally unlivable if it’s built on skipped reckonings. He’s warning against the seductive competence of denial, the way people learn to manage appearances while accruing private debt.
The line also carries a subtle rebuke to a culture of haste. “Every difficulty” widens the net: this isn’t about one catastrophic mistake, it’s about the small daily evasions that compound. Tagore’s intent feels less punitive than diagnostic. He isn’t threatening you with a curse; he’s describing a mechanism. Ignore what needs facing and you don’t get peace as a reward for efficiency. You get a longer haunting, staged precisely when you’re most desperate for rest.
That image lands because Tagore treats difficulty as moral and spiritual material, not mere inconvenience. In a poet steeped in the rhythms of Bengali devotional thought and the pressures of colonial modernity, repose isn’t just sleep; it’s inner steadiness. A life that looks functional from the outside can still be internally unlivable if it’s built on skipped reckonings. He’s warning against the seductive competence of denial, the way people learn to manage appearances while accruing private debt.
The line also carries a subtle rebuke to a culture of haste. “Every difficulty” widens the net: this isn’t about one catastrophic mistake, it’s about the small daily evasions that compound. Tagore’s intent feels less punitive than diagnostic. He isn’t threatening you with a curse; he’s describing a mechanism. Ignore what needs facing and you don’t get peace as a reward for efficiency. You get a longer haunting, staged precisely when you’re most desperate for rest.
Quote Details
| Topic | Overcoming Obstacles |
|---|
More Quotes by Rabindranath
Add to List
